Sunny Days

Yesterday was a great day! The weather has become perfect in my opinion. It's still cool and breezy but the sun is out. Flowers are in blooms and the world is just pretty now (despite the construction noises). I spent several hours outside today, mostly alone, but a little bit with friends. I laid out on the lawn near the music building and read for quite some time. I went to the Den with a friend and felt like I had to coerce him a little bit into being okay with hanging out outside. He totally thought I was weird. We almost sat down in chairs at a table but I told him I really didn't feel like sitting in a chair. I really didn't. I felt like sitting in a chair was like following rules. I wanted to feel free, and that meant not sitting in a chair. I broke the rules and sat on the part of the lawn that was roped off later on. Those little things made me feel great.

Who is it that decides what we can and can't do anyway?

Let's Go For A Ride :)

I got to go out on my very first motorcycle ride today! Jared has had a motorcycle since before we got together, and I have been curious (although admittedly somewhat afraid) to ride it for quite some time. He bought me a good bike jacket for my birthday and I bought good gloves with some money I got for my birthday. And I wore my snowboarding helmet instead of spending $250 for a motorcycle helmet. After all, a helmet doesn't really serve any use until you need it -- so I was hoping I wouldn't need it today :P

We rode from my parents' house in Kyle to meet them for lunch in Austin. The experience was incredible. I never realized how differently you see things when you get out of the car. You become much more observant of the world when you are exposed to it. I saw beautiful creeks and animals and houses that I had never noticed before. And we were on a road that I've driven at least a hundred times before.

As I rode, I was thinking about how much more I was experiencing the world. I imagine the same goes for people who bicycle. I thought to myself that I might like to get a motorcycle someday both for the economy of it and for the fun. I've wanted to take up bicycling because it seems like a fun and healthy thing to do, but I haven't been in the right place to do it or had the time to train for it. Motorcycling would probably be the same way for me, but we'll see. I'll probably be happy just riding with Jared whenever I get the chance :)

Bobcat Build

This was my first year to work at Bobcat Build and I am so glad I finally got to participate! I might even sneak in and volunteer somewhere if I know when it is next year! It was a lot of fun. I had known about Ringtail Ridge for a while, but hadn't ever visited. The dirt road in was a little rough and so was parking, but well-paved roads aren't really what you're after when you're getting into nature. I was kind of annoyed to be waiting around for instruction for so long with all the tools sitting there. There was obviously work to be done. Once we got started, I joined the group that was taking logs to the back of the trail as part of the efforts to fix the runoff problem (where they later dug a ditch). I made a couple of round trips with Elizabeth and then I was done with that.

My main task for the day wound up being to pull weeds, as seen in the picture. Probably 90% of that gravelly area in the picture was overgrown with weeds. I felt like it was kind of a lame job to have to do, but once we started making progress, I realized how much pulling the weeds changed the whole appearance of the beginning of the trail. The sad part is that it won't stay that way forever. But I hope that I will return to that park and be able to tell someone, "Look - this was my doing - the trial is clear and the bench is accessible!" It gave the park a nice face lift. It was such an unusual but fun activity that I thought to myself that I might wind up pulling weeds at any place I find myself that needs some cosmetic help. It was nice to get to chat with Susan about some things. From life goals to roly polies, nothing is off limits when you're pulling weeds.

Let's Move!

In light of today's class discussion ignited by The Omnivore's Dilemma, I found this recent news quite pertinent. Michelle Obama launched a program in February to "reshape childhood eating and exercise habits" within one generation called "Let's Move."

We know that obesity in America is a big problem. We now know that politics are strongly wound up in our food choices. We know that things should change in the way of food production. We tend to overlook the fact that food is produced the way it is in order to suit our American lifestyle.

In the same way that most people don't consider lifestyle modifications when they are diagnosed with heart disease (they would rather just be medicated), people don't think to modify their lives to fight obesity. But Michelle Obama did, and she is planning to get into the school system to make some changes. Now, I don't know all the details of the program, but it sounds like a good idea to me. I believe that nutritional education is a key factor in changing the way America eats.

But it's not only in nutritional knowledge; it's in the lifestyle. We need to get moving. We need to use the calories we consume. We need to get outside. P.E. itself is not the solution. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's where Mrs. Obama is aiming, much like the P.E. programs I suffered through in elementary school. The incentive of the "Presidential Award" for push-ups or whatever was less than inspiring. It did not make me want to keep that way of life.

I hope that schools will provide healthier options to children, with proper portions, more fruits and vegetables and less added salt and sugar. I hope that families will take these ideas into consideration for themselves as well, and not just think that everything's fine since the kids are eating better at school. I hope that real, fun activities will become integral to education and that children will want to get outside and do things. I hope that this small task force can make a difference.

But ultimately, I believe it is up to each individual to make these choices. Education and awareness are only the first steps to changing a whole (huge and convoluted) system.

Junk

On this family vacation, my eating habits totally changed. I wasn't feeding myself anymore; I was eating whatever I was given. I had doughnuts, pop tarts, and muffins for a single breakfast. A turkey sandwich followed by one slice of a PB&J and chips for lunch. Then Panda Express for dinner. And I wasn't really that hungry when I ate any of it. I just ate it because I felt compelled to. I was snowboarding, so I knew I was spending energy for that and I needed calories for it. I ate immoderately because of it.

After several days of similar eating behavior, I felt pretty rotten. I'd rather not describe my literal sensations in my digestive tract, so suffice it to say it was unpleasant. I need fiber. I need fruit and vegetables. The only fruit I had all week was three "Cutie" oranges one morning. I need more water. It is taking some time to get my system back into shape. I need to remind myself not to eat like that so consistently. It turns out badly.

On the road again

How many hours did we spend on the road over the past week? Three vehicles for thirteen travelers. Is that reasonable? We drove all the way to Santa Fe and back. Is that reasonable? Is it efficient? It's hard to say. It's about 1500 miles round trip. That's 4500 miles total. How badly did we effect emissions? I have no idea. What about monetary costs? I didn't pay for it, so it was good for me. But in my dad's 40-gallon Suburban tank, it cost nearly $100 for each tank. I think it took about three full tanks to make the trip.

That doesn't include driving up and down the mountain every day for snowboarding. We weren't the only ones that made that drive, either. On a good day, it takes at least 45 minutes to make the drive one way. These were bad days. The weather was questionable at times and too many people didn't know how to drive on ice (I would have been one of them if I had been driving). Hundreds of vehicles made (make) that drive every day.

Not only is it physically dangerous on icy/snowy days like the days we were there, but I imagine it is more environmentally dangerous than we realize. The hours it took us to drive down the mountain in traffic were filled with bad exhaust and oil consumption. I find it ridiculous. We, as snowboarders and skiiers, and the environment around us would be much better off if we weren't making that drive twice every day we want to participate in that type of recreation.

Now, is having lodges at the ski basin a solution to this issue of safety and car emissions? I'm not sure. Other environmental concerns come into play when you talk about building lodges and keeping people up there, who will have do everything they usually do. Everyday activities can surely be destructive to the environment as well. My only other thought was to have a lift that runs all the way from the bottom of the mountain up to the top or to have a carpooling system to save on all the cars driving up and down the mountain every day.

Mountains

Every Spring Break, my family takes a ski/snowboarding trip. We've done this for at least five years now. Getting into the mountains is always eventful. One time we nearly ran into the guard rail and could have died. This time, apparently everyone else was having trouble driving. Every trip up or down the mountain (we made the round trip for four days) was horrendous.

Cars slipped all over the ice and sat bumper-to-bumper along the fifteen-mile road to the top. I thought about the nature of what we were doing. Not only was it dangerous for all of us to be making that drive, but we were all polluting so much! We were on that road for two hours one way.

On the last trip up the mountain, we were at a complete stop for so long that Jared and I went for a walk. We passed about fifty cars on foot. It was so nice to get out and do that, too. A while later, my cousin, Drew, and I got out of the car again to check out an ice skating pond. It was so covered by snow that we couldn't tell where it actually was. We played it smart and didn't try to walk on it. Nobody needs to catch hypothermia!

In doing those small excursions from the long ride up, I realized a small piece of how much we miss by driving past it all. There is life in every piece of that mountain. In the future, I want to spend more time enjoying the life in that special environment than spending huge loads of money for the industrialized tourist attraction that is skiing/snowboarding.

Snowflakes

It doesn't snow very often, but whenever it does my first thought is of how beautiful it is. What amazes me about snowflakes is that each one is different. I love when they land and I can actually look at their individual shapes. The composition of a snowflake is so miraculous. It reminds me of the scripture that says

Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! (Luke 12:24)

God is good.

Food, Inc.

Last semester I took an Honors course called The Science and Politics of the Human Diet. It turned out to be a full-on Nutrition course. We read The Omnivore's Dilemma as a part of that class, because of which my interest in food/marketing has been piqued. A few weeks back I caught a going out of business sale at Hollywood Video and purchased Food, Inc. My roommate and I made a date to watch it today.

For the most part, I felt like it was a review of Michael Pollan's book. I enjoyed the book, but now that I've seen this film, I feel like what I read was kind of a waste of time. But we all know that books carry a lot more detail than films, so hopefully it was worth it. It just so happened that the movie said everything I already knew.

Except for the stuff about intellectual property and patented soybean genes. That part was really boring to me and I didn't understand it very much. It would have been more interesting to just make a full film out of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

I'm glad I watched it and I think the suggestions for taking action that the end of the movie were very valuable. It's good to see that there are ways we can try to change the system just by making different purchases. We don't have to get into all the mess of politics in order to make a difference.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

Today, my boyfriend took me to the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. The weather turned out to be perfect for such an activity, even though it started off gray and gloomy. I wanted to go there because Elizabeth had mentioned the carnivorous plants they have there, but we didn't see them.

We went through the garden for the blind and the Japanese gardens first. The garden for the blind was really interesting and had lots of familiar plants labeled. I'd love to be able to recognize some of them if I ever encountered them. The Japanese garden was incredibly peaceful. I'd love to have one of my own someday, just as a silent retreat.

A large portion of the "gardens" was a conservatory. They had plants that belong in various environmental settings in their own little greenhouses. I much prefer the naturalness of the outdoor gardens.

We went on and soon came to the vegetable garden (probably a lot like the San Marcos Community Garden) with rows and rows of different plants. I want to have a small garden of my own someday with carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and maybe a few herbs, too. Apparently herbs are very easy to grow. I'll have a lot to learn no matter what I try to grow!

Altogether, the San Antonio Botanical Gardens were beautiful and a pleasant retreat from the city life. Hopefully if we go back again, the plants will actually be in bloom!

Free Food!

It's a funny thing. The day after we watched DIVE!, I was walking through the Quad and received a free loaf of bread. I could have taken more than one loaf if I wanted, but one was enough for me. The people providing (although they didn't really try to explain what they were doing when I tried to ask) had obviously collected everything the grocery store would give them for the purpose of sharing it with campus students. They wouldn't give them anything but bread, as the makers of DIVE! had mentioned.

This whole thing made me think about how I've been eating for the past six months or so. I haven't gone to the grocery store in almost a month, and I've been able to do that pretty frequently. The only thing I was lacking this week was bread, so despite the fact that the expiration date on this loaf is three days from now, I can use it until it goes bad and it will get me through this week.

I realized that the meal I had been eating throughout the week was made of things I didn't buy. It was made of rice that was left by the previous tenant, sausage my parents gave me, and cauliflower that I got from the a Baptist church's leftovers from a reception. Even the cookware was given to me.

Almost everything I have has been provided for by someone else. That is a miracle if I have ever experienced one.

Dive!

That movie in class today was really interesting! I've always been very conscious of using my personal resources and groceries and not worried to much about the printed expiration dates. I've thought about excess waste from restaurants, too. But I had never even considered how much food is thrown away at grocery stores every day!

One thought I had before the movie got too far underway was that if the dumpster divers were collecting more food than they knew what to do with, why weren't they providing for the poor and homeless? Why weren't they providing for people who really needed food? They could easily make a lifestyle out of sharing the food they dive for. They don't have to go through a food bank with all of their legal trappings. Like a classmate said, they should be covered by the Good Samaritan Act.

Another thing I shortly began to wonder is if it is better for a person to go hungry or to eat food that is spoiled or is in some other way expired? Is it better to suffer from malnutrition and starve or to get calories and become ill? The benefit to eating this dumpster food is that the likelihood that it will actually cause some sickness doesn't seem to be very high if you choose wisely and prepare foods properly. But by not eating, there is not even a possible benefit. Therefore, I would think that eating dumpster food is a good risk to take.

Dumpster diving could quickly become a hobby for lots of people. What if there was a "dumpster-diving movement"? People would stop paying for groceries. More food would "spoil" on the shelves. More food would have to be thrown out. Food could ultimately become a trade-based commodity. I wonder if dumpster-diving is a way to fix all of the problems this country has because of the disaster that is the food industry? Food for thought...

Quartz Mountain

This past week was a choir tour to Denver, Colorado and Granite (nowhere), Oklahoma. We spent somewhere around forty hours riding a bus and a significant amount of time rehearsing. On the fourth day of our trip, I was beyond ready to have some free time and do something that wasn't on a bus or in a hotel or restaurant. Thankfully, we had just arrived at a resort called Quartz Mountain in Oklahoma.

Now I know what you must be thinking. . . "A resort in Oklahoma? How can this be?" Believe it. And the resort had a fancy schmancy performance hall for us to sing in, too! But that wasn't even the best part. The best part was the environment around us.

The first and only thing I wanted to do after I got my things to my room was go explore. Unfortunately, we were immediately called for rehearsal. People were on edge during that rehearsal, including myself, because it took so much longer than it should of and we were ready to be set free.

Finally, I had two hours to play! My friend, Erin, and I set out for the mountain. Our percussionist friends were standing at the top, so we knew it was possible despite the fact that there was not a trail to be seen. As we stood at the base of the mountain, the only things in front of us were huge rocks and cactus. We were ready for the challenge.

Hoping we weren't crazy, we set off on our [lack of] path. There were times we thought we wouldn't make it, but one of us always found a way. The percussion guys started down while we were still on our way up, and we had one of them stay with us just for a little extra security. We made it to the top with little trouble. The feeling of accomplishment was indescribable.

It didn't end when we reached the top, though. We ran into friends and they immediately proclaimed the glory of the "Zen Rock" and insisted that we go sit on it. It looked incredibly precarious from where I was standing.

So, of course, I went for it. I had a little help getting on and off (because it really was quite precariously situation). But what a thrill! I felt like I could see all of creation in that moment. It was as if the entire natural world was at my fingertips. I took a moment to sit there and thank God for the beauty of his creation.


And it was downhill from there. Not really. . . But going down a mountain is much more difficult than going up it. It's a lot harder to hold on. The bottom line is... I'm still sore three days later.